Tē: Sudbury’s Newest Tea Company

I am a huge tea drinker, never been a fan of coffee.  I am one of those rare tea drinkers who like it “black”.  Yes the taste of tea can be amazing and their are so many varieties to choose from, but the main reason I stick to tea is because it comes with health benefits.  Not just any tea has health benefits, mainly loose leaf teas because they are herbs.  Depending on the herbs in the tea will depend on what you can benefit most from the tea, common uses are antioxidants, cleansing properties for different organs in the body, arthritis, anxiety, colds/flus, insomnia, and many more.

Recently I interviewed a new tea company in Sudbury called Tē, owned and operated by Anastacia and Mat.  Their company consists of all loose leaf teas, and homemade iced teas.

How long have you been a tea drinker for?

Anastacia: I remember some very elaborate tea parties with all of my stuffed animals long before I was even able to read or write. A favourite past-time when I was a little girl was to prepare a large pot of sleepy time tea and share it in my nana’s beautiful tea cups with as many stuffed animals as I could find. Lucky for me, I always had the privilege of drinking their leftover tea and eating all the biscuits!

Mat: I’ve been drinking tea for 10 years now.

What made you start tē?

We’re tea fanatics. We start our day with tea, and end it the same way. Over the last year, we’ve become more involved in learning about tea and decided that it was time to share our passion. We love our tea blends, and hope that our customers will too!

Where do you source your tea from?

Our teas come from fair-trade, organic farms from all over the world (including China, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Egypt, USA, etc.). We choose our creations, and have them blended in an organic facility in Ontario that specializes in gathering some of the highest quality tea leaves and herbs from around the world.

What is the process in making your loose leaf teas and iced teas?

The tea leaves are sourced worldwide and gathered by an organic facility. The tea ingredients are inspected and freshly blended then brought to Azilda, Ontario, where we then proceed to package the tea. We work with a Naturopathic Doctor in creating new and exciting blends for various health benefits. As our company grows, we’ll keep adding new tea blends.

For our iced teas, we cold brew our tea leaves for a 24-48 hour infusion period. Once ready, we strain the iced tea and bottle it. That’s it! We don’t add any sugar or sweetener to our blends. By cold brewing our iced tea, compared to heating our tea, we are able to avoid extracting to many tannins (compound in tea and herbs that usually gives your drink a bitter or astringent taste), thus giving you a great tasting iced tea.

What is the difference between your tea and a tea that you could buy at a store (such as a Tetley or Red Rose)?

When you take a sip of tē, you can allow peace of mind knowing that you’ve purchased a premium tea that is most fairly traded, most sustainably grown and the most delicious! Some leaves (such as Gunpowder and Iron Goddess) are hand-rolled for optimal quality. We’ve taken the time to carefully select and prepare your next cup of tea.

We value and strive to offer the highest quality teas to our customers. All of our blends are loose leaf. The difference between loose leaf tea and bagged tea is in the quality. When tea is bagged, there isn’t enough room for expansion of the leaf, therefore compromising taste. That’s why many people add sugar and milk to teas of lower quality. Most tea bags also contain fannings or ‘dust’ which is the lowest quality and cheapest tea you can find on the market. Often, these fannings contain very little antioxidants and nutritional value. Our loose leaf teas don’t affect the seepage of antioxidants that are found in the tea leaves, unlike bagged tea. We avoid all of these issues by offering our customers loose leaf tea that is both organic and fair trade.

Are there any health benefits to drinking your teas?

Tea in general has many benefits including fighting cancer, weight loss, lowering cholesterol, better immunity, decreasing stress hormones, fighting depression, etc. Science was able to show that these benefits come from the many polyphenols and antioxidant found in tea. Again, the higher quality teas have more antioxidants than teas found in bags. Tea contains the amino acid L-Theanine which is almost exclusive to the tea leaf. This amino acid provides you with a relaxation without sedation.

Our iced teas also have these benefits. Many commercial iced teas are made from tea concentrate or with artificial tea flavouring and have a lot of sugar. Our iced tea simply contains spring water and our tea leafs.

Which ones are your favourites/ best sellers?

This one is hard because we enjoy all types of tea, and all of the teas we sell! For Mat, it really depends on what he’s in the mood for. Mat’s favourite black tea is Raspberry Earl Grey, Oolong is Citrus Oolong, green is Jasmine Blossoms, herbal is Black Currant Rooibos and white is Blueberry Shrub.

Anastacia enjoys a simple English breakfast to start the day, and a caramel latte tea for dessert ( a taste of heaven, with zero calories and zero guilt).

We like to bake with our teas as well. Our favourite dessert is a chai cupcake. We’ll have this recipe and others posted to our website, www.tealiterate.com shortly after the online launch, coming September.

Our bestsellers are Creamsicle, Strong Earl Grey and Spearmint.

Where can people find out more about your teas and where can they be purchased?

We’re currently selling our tea and iced tea at the farmers market on Saturdays and Sundays. We’re in the developmental stages of creating an online store, expected to launch in September, and will be shipping across Canada. As we progress, we would really love to see our loose leaf and iced teas sold in various stores and restaurants in the Sudbury region. We love our city and all of the local businesses! We’re on Facebook and Instagram @tealiterate. Follow us for updates on the website, discount codes, new blends and more.

Cassie Tario

Cassie-Lee Tario (C.N.P) is a Holistic Nutritionist and the former owner of The HeartBeet Cafe. She loves to cook, create new recipes and share her health knowledge with everyone. To find out more info about her or how to contact her visit www.cassie-leetario.com

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